Cyber Essentials vs. Cyber Essentials with IASME Governance
There have been a lot of questions about what is the difference between Cyber essential scheme and cyber essential with IASME governance standards.
So in this article, we’ll be getting into the details that will answer all your queries.
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials scheme has been around since 2014; it is based on self-assessment of about 40 questions, which can be completed by logging into the web portal. It is required by the government to be selected as a supplier. Thus, most of the companies are acquiring Cyber Essentials as part of the tender process.
Organizations assess themselves against the following five basic security controls:
• Boundary firewalls & internet gateways
• Secure configuration
• Access control
• Malware protection
• Patch management
Once an organization completes these questions, they’re then assessed by a Cyber Essentials certification body.
IASME Governance
IASME Governance option adds around an additional 130 questions to the 40 Cyber Essential questions; these additional questions are based on your business considering areas such as business continuity and risk management. This Governance standard has been developed consistently over the years since its conception. Initially, it was a government funded project to create an affordable and achievable alternative cybersecurity standard to the international standard, ISO27001.
This governance standard allows small companies in a supply chain to demonstrate their level of cybersecurity for a realistic cost and to indicate that they’re taking good steps for protecting their customer’s information.
Benefits of Both
Cyber Essentials is a great stepping point for businesses of all sizes; if done properly, it identifies that the business is working towards ensuring the safety of business practices to safeguard against cyber incidents. However, having only Cyber Essentials in place can guarantee only this much. Implementing Cyber Essentials with IASME Governance further helps the business to identify all the key areas of operation. From ensuring working backups to identifying risk areas of operation, to ensuring the security of the entire supply chain.
If you’re a business person, and you’re looking for something that will ensure you are doing the right things, and you would like to implement the best practices of ISO 27001, but you can’t justify the cost or have the means to put it in place, then IASME governance standard is the best for you.
Also, having both Cyber Essentials and IASME Governance ensures that you’re doing the basics for protecting your cybersecurity as well as working towards protecting your data governance and personal information, which can help your business win tenders.